The eviction of three occupied refugee shelters in Thessaloniki marks another episode in the Greek government’s war on grassroots solidarity efforts.

In the early morning of July 27, refugee families and supporters who were sleeping at Thessaloniki’s three occupied refugee shelters — Nikis, Orfanotrofeio and Hurriya — were woken up by police in riot gear. In a well-orchestrated police operation, hundreds of people were detained. Most occupants with refugee status were released, while some were transported to military-run refugee reception centers. The rest of the occupants, 74 people of more than a dozen different nationalities, were taken into police custody.

Immediately after Orfanotrofeio was evacuated, bulldozers marched in and demolished the building, an abandoned orphanage “donated” five years ago to the enterprising Greek Orthodox Church by a previous government. Under the rubble were buried tons of clothes, foodstuffs and medicine collected there by grassroots solidarity structures to be distributed to refugee families in need. Hours later, No Border Kitchen, an autonomous structure providing food to refugees in the island of Lesvos, was also forcefully evicted by the police. [Read More]

Since this morning (27/07) the cops have invaded 3 housing squats, which host refugees and immigrants, these are orfanotrofio, the one on Nikis boulvrd. and the recently squatted on C. Dill str. (Hurriya). 83 people were detained and there is information about over 75 arrests with the accusation of “civil peace disturbance”. The procedure of the demolition of Orfanotrofio has already started, while people who were in the building and were in need of medication were not allowed to take it. —- The refugees and immigrants are transferred to detention centers and the solidaries were dragged into police detention buildings and courts. Some time later comrades have clashed with the cops in front of the entrance of syriza’s office in Thessaloniki and occupied it. The far-right bastards of syriza go smoothly hand in hand with ND (nea dimokratia, right-wing party in power before syriza’s election), anthimos (the metropolit, church’s highest officer in Thessaloniki) and all the rest pile of shit, consisting the long arm of repression. With a non-seen before operation of revenge against no border camp, they attack in the crack of dawn on families of refugees in their own homes and on the solidaries. Power reveal its teeth again and they are completely rotten, as the bankrupt world of state and bosses is. None of us is afraid of them. Our comrades through syriza’s office occupation demand the immediate release of all the arrested locals and migrants, the stoppage of the demolition of Orfanotrofio, cops out of our homes and lives. [Read More]

In a move unprecedented in times of “democracy”, the Greek government raided and evicted today, 27 July in the early morning, three squats in the city of Thessaloniki, which were being used as shelter for refugees.
The message the left wing government wants to transmit is that there is no space for solidarity and self-managed responses to the ordeal of the refugees, only the state’s charity and the confinement, marginalisation and selective deportation carried out by a government that follows to the letter the criminal immigration policies of the EE.
The eviction comes only a couple of days after the end of the No Border Camp in Thessaloniki, which united thousands of activists from throughout the continent to protest these very policies.
One of the squats, Nikis, has been a long standing squat in Thessaloniki, which was opened up to refugee families with the onset of the refugee crisis. Another one, Orfanotrofeio, was (re)occupied last year with the express purpose of giving shelter to immigrant and refugees in a self-managed way. The third one was occupied only a few days ago in the very centre of the city for the same purpose.
Orfanotrofeio was evicted and immediately demolished. Under the rubble were buried tons of medicine, food, clothes and first necessity items that were destined for refugee families, as well as the occupants’ personal belongings. [Read More]